Scandal on the Sand (The Billionaires of Barefoot Bay #3)(15)
Author: Roxanne St. Claire

He nodded, waiting.

“I won’t give him up easily, no matter what we find out about Carrie or what a DNA test says or what you want to do. I will fight for him because I love him with every cell in my body. His mother named me legal guardian, and that will carry a lot of weight in court.”

Court? “The last thing I want to do is drag this to court.”

“Then sign the paper and let me have him to raise and love,” she said.  “You can…”  She closed her eyes as if the words pained her.  “You can see him.”

Two responses played in his head. Maybe I will was one. The other was the truth, so he said it. “He’s an Ivory.”

“What does that mean?” she demanded.

“It means he’s…family.”

“Define family,” she shot back. “I’ve been with him since he took his first breath, first step, first bath and first birthday. I rock him to sleep every night. I take him to the park and supervise playdates and make sure he eats right. Except for a few strands of DNA, I am his mother.”

“And because of a few strands of DNA, I could be his father.”

For a long time, they just stared at each other, neither one willing or able to say a word. He studied her mysterious eyes, dark with distrust and fear and more alluring and beautiful than anything he could remember seeing in a long time.

“Why are you smiling?” she asked.

Was he? “I don’t know. I guess because you’re so pretty.”

She inched back. “Now? You’re going to hit on me now in the middle of the biggest crisis of either one of our lives?”

“I’m not hitting on you, Liza. Though I do wish we’d met under different circumstances.”

“Like what? A party on your yacht? What did you say? Bare-ass naked with some guy’s wife’s hand on your—”

“Shhh.” He put his finger over her lip to stop the words from spewing out. For reasons he’d never, ever understand, a low burn of embarrassment started in his gut. He didn’t want this lovely, caring, maternal young woman, who clearly gave with all her heart and soul, to even think about his…lifestyle.

“Listen, Key West is a couple of hours away on my boat. Let’s go together and see what we can find out about her.”

For a second, he was sure she was about to say no to the invitation, but then she stunned him with a direct look and a simple answer. “Yes, I’ll go.”

After they exchanged numbers and made plans for him to pick her up the next day, she climbed out of the car, pointedly not issuing an invitation for him to come inside. Instead, she walked slowly away from his car.

Then her front door flew open, and Nate glanced back to see Dylan running toward the street, arms outstretched. “N-A-T-E! I spell your name! N-A-T-E!”

The letters were screamed so loud, he heard them through the closed windows. Liza scooped the child up in her arms to carry him in without even looking back at Nate’s car.

She was his mother, for all intents and purposes. But if he was his father…he simply had to know. And then?

He had no idea.

Chapter Six

He sent a limo for her. And a remote-control-operated toy sports car for Dylan. Liza didn’t know whether to be thrilled or disappointed, but she was a little of both when the driver closed the door with a solid thud. With Mom waving goodbye from the driveway and Dylan dancing with excitement for his new toy, Liza dropped her head back on the cool leather and closed her eyes.

Everything smelled…rich.  Was this just like the limo where he and Carrie…

Don’t, Liza. Don’t think about that.

This would be a fact-finding mission, a day trip to the Keys and back, a chance to smooth out the wrinkles in this messy situation. This trip was so impersonal that he sent a car and driver rather than picking her up himself. She had to remember that and put her mother’s musings and any of her own really stupid secret fantasies to sleep while she focused on finding out what they could about Carrie Cassidy.

She held on to that thought until the limo driver pulled into the harbor on Mimosa Key and the first thing she saw was Nathaniel Ivory waiting on the dock next to the cabin cruiser she’d been on yesterday.

Bathed in sunshine, the breeze whipping his hair into a tousled mess, he stood with his hands on narrow hips, wearing khakis and a faded blue button-down shirt that fit his broad shoulders like it was custom-made for him—well, duh. Everything was custom-made for him.

His sleeves were rolled up to show corded forearms, the top button undone to reveal a peek of that impressive chest. His thick hair brushed the collar of his shirt with a hint of wave, the sun picking up the strands of burnished gold among the much darker shades.

He looked unreal, like a Photoshopped model who’d just stepped off the pages of a Nautica ad.

Who wouldn’t buy what he was selling?

He approached the limo and opened the door before the driver even got out, dipping over to give her a dazzling smile. “Hope you don’t mind the ride.”

She laughed. “Yeah, all this leather and luxury. Really sucks.”

“I wanted to get you, but I had some things I had to take care of on board.” He reached for her hand to help her out, glancing up to the driver as he got out of the front. “Is her bag in the back?”

“My bag?” Liza stepped into the sunshine, warmed by it and the thought that he expected her to bring a bag. “Won’t we be back tonight?”

“It’s about a four-hour cruise down there, and I don’t know how long it will take us to poke around Key West, and there might be some weather tonight.”

Was he proposing they get a hotel or sleep on his boat? It was sizable, but she’d seen only one cabin. She leaned around his shoulder to check out the vessel again. “It looks pretty seaworthy to me.”

“Good Lord, Liza, I wouldn’t take you to the Keys on that.” With a strong hand on her shoulder, he turned her to look beyond the harbor to the open water. “We’re taking my other boat.”

She couldn’t do anything but stare. “I thought that was…” A freaking cruise ship. “Someone else’s.”

“N’Vidrio? I’ve been practically living on her for years.”

It was a floating castle of a super-mega-over-the-top yacht, complete with colorful flags and a helicopter pad. “What does the name mean? Other than ‘biggest boat in the damn ocean’?”

He laughed. “It’s not. N for Nate. Vidrio is Spanish for glass, which is the basis of my family’s fortune, and it’s also close to the word for envy.”